53 



Termites bellicosus. Naturalists have described five orders 

 as belonging to each colony. Of these Prof. W. exhibited 

 four, viz. workers, soldiers, males, and the queen. The 

 body of the last, the parent female, was enormously devel- 

 oped, to accommodate the ova with which it was distended. 

 This great, enlargement takes place by an increase of tlie 

 substance between the scales of tlie abdominal segments. 

 The royal cell, which was also displayed by Prof. W., is of 

 compact clay, with openings for the free ingress and egress 

 of all the orders except the queen, who is immovably in- 

 carcerated in it. There is also a sort of gallery or passage- 

 way surrounding her, with wdiich the external openings com- 

 municate. The specimens were brought from Africa by 

 Dr. T. S. Savage. 



Prof. Wyman mentioned that he had recently obtained 

 specimens of Clepsina, with the young attached to the 

 abdomen of the parent. The mother was observed to sit 

 upon the eggs soon after they were laid. At first tlicse were 

 spherical, but in a few days became elongated. After four 

 or five days they became attached to the mother, and the 

 yolk began to divide in the usual way, and the development 

 of the alimentary canal commenced. 



Prof. Wyman also communicated some results obtained 

 by dissections of the nervous system of frogs. He had 

 found attached to the trunk of each of the Spinal Nerves, 

 just before their division into motor and sensitive roots, a 

 vesicle containing a white ciialky substance, which under 

 the microscope was shown to be composed of vast numbers 

 of minute crystals, (probably Carbonate of Lime,) each 

 having a hexagonal form, and terminated at either extrem- 

 ity by a six-sided pyramid. The sac containing them was 

 well defined, about half a line in diameter, and subdivided 

 internally by numerous septa into small cavities in which 

 the crystals were lodged. Nervous filaments were traced 

 into the interior of the sac. A deposit of similar crystals 

 was also noticed around the veins in the Spinal Canal, and 

 on the base of the Cranium. 



